1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to gas fryers. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a gas fryer that utilizes burners and heat exchanger tubes to transfer heat to a cooking medium in a frypot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Deep fat tube fryers are well known in the field. These fryers typically include a frypot containing a cooking oil medium and one or more heat exchanger tubes that run through the frypot below the surface of the cooking oil. Burners are typically connected to one end of these heat exchanger tubes and heat the tube so that the heat is transferred to the cooking oil. A flue is usually used on the opposite end of the heat exchanger tube from the burner to discharge the combustion by-products. Often baffles are used inside the heat exchanger tubes to retard the flow of the combustion gasses and thereby increase the rate of heat transfer to the cooking medium. Additionally, the baffles assist in the transfer of heat by conducting heat themselves.
Due to their use in industrial applications such as fast food restaurants, it is desirable to make these fryers as efficient as possible and easy to service, in order to reduce operating costs. Many conventional fryers, however, have burners that are mounted to the heat exchanger tube in a way that allows the escape of some of the combustion gasses. One other difficulty with conventional deep fat tube fryers is that the burners are rigidly mounted to the heat exchanger tubes, or mounted to the heat exchanger tubes with a number of fasteners. Either of these configurations requires a significant amount of time for service and repair.
Additionally, many in-shot burners used with heat exchanger tubes are mounted either co-axially with the heat exchanger tubes of the fryer or at an angle downward to the horizontal. Neither of these configurations is desirable. The co-axial orientation often requires that the burner be shorter than what optimal burning conditions would require, due to space limitations. Those burners that use an angled mounting orientation are not desirable because they force the combustion gas down into the heat exchanger tube, against the forces of gravity and/or buoyancy. This is not an ideal condition to facilitate the mixing of the gas fuel with air.
Typically, burners currently in use employ a cast hole(s) or perforated plate as the burner face leading into the heat exchanger tube. These configurations are undesirable because they decrease the efficiency with which the combustion gasses are mixed and burned.
Consequently, there is a need for a burner assembly that provides an efficient burn and high heat transfer rate for the fryer, which is convenient and easy to service.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a burner assembly for a tube fryer that is easy to service and maintain.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an increased burning efficiency over the currently available systems.